gong but not forgotten

Will Arnett Is Bringing The Gong Show Back to Life

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Photo: Scott Barbour/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, especially if it’s a giant gong signaling a performer’s televised humiliation. Between Alec Baldwin’s Match Game, Michael Strahan’s $100,000 Pyramid, Steve Harvey’s Celebrity Family Feud, and Anthony Anderson’s To Tell the Truth, ABC has been reinvesting in classic game-show franchises like they’re going out of style, which they were, before ABC brought them all back. The network’s latest retro investment is The Gong Show, which initially aired from 1976 to 1980, with a brief revival in 1988. Will Arnett is on board to executive produce the reboot, which currently has a ten-episode first-season order. The show will feature a panel of celebrity judges critiquing a parade of internet talent with a giant metal gong, a format so suited for today’s competition-show field, it’s shocking it took ABC this long to haul that dusty gong out of storage.

Will Arnett Is Bringing Back The Gong Show